In August 2009, U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko stood on a sweltering stage before a crowd of 1,500 people -- about half of them hostile -- in Bethlehem's Elm Avenue Park.

Tonko, an Amsterdam Democrat then serving his first term in the House of Representatives, was there to explain his support for President Barack Obama's controversial health care reforms -- an issue that continues to sharply divide the country.

Bethlehem police were on hand to control the crush of traffic expected at the event -- and eventually had to haul one man out after he allegedly repeatedly threatened others in the audience.

For Tonko and his staff, it was the largest of countless public events that come hand-in-hand with a life, like Tonko's, spent in politics.

"The health care town hall, people were pretty emotional," Tonko spokesman Beau Duffy said Saturday in the wake of the Arizona shooting in which five people were killed, including a federal judge, and at least 10 were wounded,several of them critically, including Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. "But it was nothing that ever got to the point where I got nervous or the congressman got nervous."

Giffords' shooting happened at a "Congress on Your Corner" constituent event at a Tucson supermarket very similar to those held by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand during her tenure representing the Capital Region's 20th Congressional District.

And it may have special resonance in Albany, a government town in which politicians are constantly mingling with the public -- largely without security.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised eyebrows last week by making one of his first acts as governor ordering the removal of the intimidating concrete barriers that have flanked the Capitol on State Street for a decade, meant in part as protection from vehicle-borne explosives.

Cuomo also lifted a decade-old ban on public access to the Capitol's Hall of Governors. The Capitol, however, remains under strict security by State Police, with its entrances protected by magnetometers.

And while houses of government still afford at least some measure of control, security at public events -- where the point is often to be out among the people -- remains largely a wild card.

"Subconsciously, there's always that underlying thought that there could be some sort of act of violence on the representative or even staff," said Charles Diamond, longtime district chief of staff for Tonko's predecessor in the 21st district, retired Congressman Michael R. McNulty.

"You're doing 10 public events a day when you're in the district, you're wide open and people that are angry know the public schedule, and sometimes it's not pretty. ... There's a certain sense of anger now, and it seems like there's almost a promotion of violence against elected officials, and it to some extent it took its toll today."

Duffy described Tonko as stunned and saddened by the shooting of his colleague on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

"When you're out in the public, you can't always guarantee that you're going to be in a safe spot. Anything can happen," Duffy said. "There's only so much you can do."

In a statement, Tonko called Giffords "one of our nation's brightest young leaders."

U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, a Republican from Kinderhook sworn in last week to Gillibrand's old seat, was at a retreat Saturday in Williamsburg, Va., with other new members of the House and their families.

But in a statement released by his office, Gibson said he and his wife "were deeply saddened to learn of the details of this horrific attack."

Before being elected to the House of Representatives in 2008, Tonko spent 24 years in the Assembly.

"Being a representative at any level of government is being accessible to your constituents," Duffy said. "I think it's unsettling period, no matter what the motivation turns out to be."